frightened petty bourgeois say that the capitalist will "run away" if "too vigorous" measures are taken, that without them "we" cannot manage things, that the Anglo-French millionaires who "sustain" us will be "offended," &c. … One would believe, listening to these fellows, that the Bolsheviks propose something which has never yet been seen in history, which has never been tried—a pure Utopia: although in France, 150 years ago, men who were really "revolutionary democrats," who were really convinced of the just, defensive character of the war which they were waging, and whose power truly rested on the popular masses, were able to set up a revolutionary control over the rich and get results which compelled the admiration of the whole world.
Now, during the 150 years which have rolled away since then, the development of capitalism by the creation of banks and trusts and railroads has simplified and facilitated, to an indefinite extent, the means of real democratic control on the part of the workers and peasants, over the exploiters and the capitalists.
At bottom, the question of control is really the question: Who is it that exercises control: that is to say, what class controls and what class is controlled? Amongst us in republican Russia, it is the big landowners and the capitalists who have continued so far, with the connivance of the "competent organs" of the so-called revolutionary democracy, to play the part of the controllers.
The inevitable outcome is the capitalist venality which provokes general indignation amongst the people, as much as the disorganisation which the capitalists have artificially created.
It is necessary revolutionarily, unequivocally and fearlessly to break with the past and build up the structure of the future; to put into effect the control of the workers and peasants over the big landowners and the capitalists. It is of this that our S.R.'s and Mensheviks are most afraid.
8.—Compulsory Grouping into Trusts
In Germany the compulsory grouping into associations—of the industrialists, for instance—has long since been effected. There is nothing new in it. The S.R.'s and the Mensheviks are to be blamed for the complete stagnation which, in this matter as in others, prevails in republican Russia where we see these not too honourable parties in close embrace with the Cadets or the
